Braving odds for the love of adventure

An adventure junkie and wellness coach today, Jessy has skydived over the Palms in Dubai, parasailed and paraglided in Tenerife, and navigated the grade five waters of Ladakh and Zimbabwe on a white-water rafting expedition. A stand-up paddler and certified scuba diver, she is now preparing to write a book that offers tips to senior people on leading a healthy and energetic life.

Fifty-nine-year-old Jessy Jacob is a spirited soul. She completed the Everest Base Camp trek, summited Mount Kilimanjaro and ziplined across the gorge of Victoria Falls, all in the last 15 years. A successful architect in her previous avatar, Jacob’s moment of epiphany was at the age of 45.

“I was a very successful architect. I have won multiple awards, and travelled all over the country for projects,” she recollects. 

But at 45 she says a realization hit her. 

“I was very successful, but unwell. I was obese and not feeling good inside.”

Around the same time, a friend who was of the same age had a cardiac arrest. Jacob decided to change her course.  

An adventure junkie and wellness coach today, Jessy has skydived over the Palms in Dubai, parasailed and paraglided in Tenerife, and navigated the grade five waters of Ladakh and Zimbabwe on a white-water rafting expedition. A stand-up paddler and certified scuba diver, she is now preparing to write a book that offers tips to senior people on leading a healthy and energetic life.

Having studied at a boarding school located on a 700-acre campus and growing up on a farm, childhood involved a lot of ‘outdoor’, says Jacob. While it included sports and games, adventure was still decades away.